The Milky Way Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff create a warm and inclusive environment, where all children and families feel welcome and respected. Staff respond sensitively to children's differing needs. Their patience and soothing words help children to feel safe, and this gives them the security to be themselves and to explore freely. This means that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who speak English as an additional language, thrive and make progress. Staff know the children well and carefully observe and note children's interests and developmental needs. This enables staff to provide a stimulating and relevant curriculum, which builds on children's skills and helps them to move on in their learning.

Staff ensure that all children have regular opportunities to explore and play outside. This has a positive impact on children's health and well-being and gives them a wide variety of opportunities to practise and develop their physical skills. For example, babies delight in swirling and splashing their hands in the water tray. Older children skilfully negotiate their way around a marked road using trikes and scooters. They learn to share and take turns with play equipment, gently guided by attentive staff. Staff consistently reinforce clear boundaries, which helps to promote positive behaviour throughout the nursery. This is reflected in the way children show kindness and affection for each other.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• The management team and staff have worked hard to implement changes and improve practice since the last inspection. The manager welcomed support from an early years adviser and reviewed the quality of provision in each room. This has helped to ensure children's safety when sleeping and to support staff in promoting children's learning and development through effective interactions.
• The management team has effective strategies in place to offer continuous support to staff. Regular supervision meetings provide staff with opportunities to reflect on their practice and identify any training needs linked to areas for development. The manager is a good role model, and staff comment that they feel valued.
• Children are motivated to learn and persevere when faced with more challenging tasks. For example, children carefully work out how to place dressing-up clothes on hangers. However, on occasion, staff in the pre-school plan activities that do not build on children's previous learning. This means that children lack engagement and do not have the appropriate skills or understanding to complete the task.
• Staff build on children's life experiences in meaningful ways. For example, children enjoyed a walk around the local community to see a space rocket. For some children, this helped to develop their physical strength and stamina. For others, it provided an exciting opportunity to enrich their vocabulary by hearing and using a wide variety of space-related words.
• Staff encourage children's interest in books by regularly reading to them and planning activities around a favourite picture book. Older children engage enthusiastically during group story time. They show their understanding of the text by offering relevant comments. For example, when a member of staff explains what the intestine is, children study the book with interest and comment that 'it looks like a tube to carry the food'. However, group story times do not actively engage all the children in the 'Stars room'.
• Staff work closely with parents to gather relevant information about children's interests, care needs and developmental stages. This helps staff to provide appropriate support, especially for children with SEND. Parents say that staff help to prepare children well for school and that they receive regular information, including how they can support learning at home.
• Staff interact well with children during their play and activities. They ask questions and model language to support children's communication skills. Staff respond warmly to babies, following their lead and initiating games such as peekaboo, making the babies giggle with delight. They talk continually to babies, repeating key words slowly and clearly. Opportunities to further support babies' social and communication skills are not fully utilised at mealtimes.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider how books can be shared more effectively with children after lunch in the Stars room, to support all children to participate and gain the most from the activity
• review the organisation of mealtimes in the baby room so children receive high- quality social and communication experiences
• support staff in pre-school to plan number activities that gradually build on children's previous skills and help them to progress to the next stage in their learning.